U.S. Open: Past Merion rounds aiding Rickie Fowler's game

HAVERFORD -- While Rickie Fowler says he's playing a much tougher East Course at Merion Golf Club than he did four years ago when he led the U.S. team to victory in the Walker Cup Match, there are plenty of good vibes for him to draw upon here.

While his playing partners were making a mess of things -- Sergio Garcia had a 10 on the par-4 15th hole and Robert Karlsson was in the process of putting up an 86 -- the 24-year-old Fowler matched the low round of the tournament during Saturday's third round with a 3-under 67 that vaulted him to ninth place at 3-over 213 going into today's final round.

"It helped a lot, just knowing that I've played well here before," said Fowler, who delayed the start of his pro career to help his captain, Merion member George "Buddy" Marucci, win a second Walker Cup. "I know I've made putts here. I know I've made good swings here. The biggest thing this week has just been staying patient, sitting back and letting things happen and I finally was able to do that today."

Fowler offset a bogey at the fifth with a birdie at the seventh, then made birdies on 10, 13 and 15 coming in to fashion the day's best round. Fowler knew the USGA was going to set up the East Course a tad tougher than it did for the Walker Cup.

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"It's quite a bit different, just with the rough and some of the routing of the fairways, a couple different bunkers out there," Fowler said. "The greens are softer than what they were when we played Walker Cup, but you add the rough and it's a completely different story.

"I feel like it played quite a bit easier for us in the Walker Cup. We were able to make quite a few birdies. A lot of us were actually playing well and if I would have played the way I did today, then it would have been quite a bit lower. But I'm happy with what happened."

The numbers don't lie. Merion has been a beast this week. Through three rounds, the average score is 74.6, which is nearly 5-over.

"If you're not on your game a hundred percent, you get on the wrong side of the greens and it's just freighting because I didn't feel like I played too badly," said Rory McIlroy, who carded a 75 on Saturday and is at plus-8. "I missed a few shots here and there, and I was trying on every shot out there and I was trying to get myself back into it, but it's tough. If you're just not a 100 percent on top of your game, it's going to expose some of your flaws or weaknesses."

There are some tough challenges on the front nine, like Nos. 5, 6 and 9 -- which are ranked the second-, third- and sixth-most difficult holes so far, respectively. But everybody acknowledges that the most difficult stretch is the finish, holes 14-through-18. The last five holes at Merion are playing tougher than any finishing stretch in the U.S. Open dating back to Pebble Beach in 1992.

The 500-yard-plus, par-4 18th is the No. 1 handicap, averaging 4.7 per player, but the 14th, 15th and 17th are all in the top-seven as far as difficultly. When questioned about the pre-tournament comments from players who predicted that the field would carve up Merion's 6,996 yard, par 70 East Course, Charl Schwartzel just chuckled.

"I don't know what those guys are thinking," he said. "Maybe the comment was after 16 holes or something."

And how difficult is the narrow, 411-yard 15th? Well, Spain's Sergio Garcia hit three balls out of bounds to the left Saturday and wound up carding a 10 on the hole.

"I only hit one bad shot and I made a 10," Garcia said. "My first shot was into the wind and it went out of bounds. My second one I thought was even better and it went out of bounds by five inches. And then the third one wasn't great."

Jason Day has a swing that is so pure, it is the envy of his contemporaries on the PGA Tour. And it was on full display during round three of the U.S. Open. But the 25-year-old Australian also benefited from some heady play to move into contention at 2-over 212 thanks to a rock-solid 68 that was among the best rounds of the day.

Day began Saturday at 3-over, and had a pair of bogeys in the morning while finishing the last four holes of his second round. He added two more bogeys through six holes in the afternoon, and things looked bleak. But Day regrouped and began to rocket up the leaderboard with four birdies over his next 11 holes. He did finish with a bogey on 18, but is now in eight place, just 3 strokes off the lead.

"I think that it was more my mental game that kind of got me the momentum back," Day said. "It's very frustrating when you're out there and you drop a couple like on 5 and 6. I just told myself that I just needed to stay patient."

A total of 68 players came out early Saturday to wrap up the second round. With beautiful sunny skies and implementation of the 36-hole cut (at 8-over) in which the field was sliced to 73, the tournament was finally able to get current after falling behind Thursday due to two separate weather delays.

Five former U.S. Open champs advanced, including Webb Simpson (2012), Rory McIlroy (2011), Tiger Woods (2000, 2002, 2008), Geoff Ogilvy (2006) and Ernie Els (1994, 1997). None of the 20 qualifiers made the cut, marking the first time that's happened since records were first kept in 1997.

A few of the more prominent names who did not qualify for the final two rounds: multiple major winners Angel Cabrera and Jose Maria Olazabal, and former major champions Jim Furyk, Stewart Cink, Y.E. Yang, Michael Campbell, Darren Clarke, Lucas Glover, Zach Johnson and Louis Oosthuisen, who withdrew due to a hip injury.